Two Questions:

[Sablearm]

Hello,
I have a couple of questions that I hope someone can assist with.

1. Does anyone have a pattern for a Federal Double bag that you can share?

2. I have a good quality gum blanket that has become brittle from exposure to heat during storage. The coating is flaking off on folded areas. Is it possible to have the blanket re-coated in order to restore it?

Thanks.

George Hardy, Sablearm
Hannibal Guards
Sons and Daughters of Ham

[Silas]

Re: Two Questions:

One. Just purchase a new double bag. I haven't noticed a pattern for same. Even with proper measurements, the time involved - including trial and error - would exceed the cost of a proper bag.

Two. Purchase a new gum. Good luck fixing it. Should you want to be able to repair your impervious layer, I suggest purchasing a Claude Sinclair painted blanket. You can repaint it over and over.

[Sablearm]

Re: Two Questions:

Thanks Silas. We are ramping up a squad and the objective is to equip several members with good quality items. We need knapsacks not just for one person but for about six to begin with. I believe we have the skills to undertake the production of these bags and it will be a great project for team building. The economic benefits are obvious.

You are probably right with regard to the gum blanket. I'm hanging on to it for sentimental reasons and need to release :). I'm a fix-it kind of a person and I'm always looking for ways to repair as opposed to throwing things out.

I appreciate your input.

George Hardy, Sablearm
Hannibal Guards
Sons and Daughters of Ham

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Two Questions:

Hey George,

If you are dead set on making a knapsack, I would recommend contacting some museums to examine originals. I have work with the MOC on several occasions and they were always very accommodating. They might even have a double-bag in their achieves that you could examine and even better, already have notes on one that you can buy for a small fee.
A word of caution though, their "ready made" notes don't always have little details like thread type, stitches etc.

[Sablearm]

Re: Two Questions:

Thanks Tyler. I've been receiving some great suggestions from forum members sending emails offline. Thanks to everyone.

George H., Sablearm

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Two Questions:

Hallo!

I am aware of some line drawings with measurements, for example done by John Tobey taken from his (?) originals,.. but I have never (yet) seen patterns.

Curt

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Two Questions:

George, I have no idea if this will help you on the rubber blanket, but your question did remind me that I'd seen something on repairing rubber pontoons, so here it is, FWIW. On a side note, one of the gum blankets recovered from the Maple Leaf showed signs of a stitched repair.

"26. Repair of India-rubber Pontoons.—The greatest danger to which these India-rubber pontoons are exposed is that of being perforated by the musket-balls of au enemy opposing the passage of a river. Should a shot-hole be made in a pontoon while forming the bridge, it may be temporarily stopped, without removing the pontoon from its place, by an India-rubber patch, a few of which the pontonierserjeants should always have in their pockets. The patch is made of two circular pieces of India-rubber cloth, 3 inches in diameter, having a small hole in the centre, through which passes a string of soft cord, knotted at one end, which will completely fill the hole. One of the circular pieces is crowded into the pontoon, and drawn tight against the inside of it by the patch-string, where it is kept in its place by the inner pressure of the air, while the other circular piece is slipped over the string hard against the outside of the pontoon, and secured in place by tying a knot close to the outer surface of the patch. Larger holes could be stopped in a similar manner, but would, of course, require larger patches. For the repair of small shot-holes, the torn edges should be trimmed, making the opening of the inner thickness of the pontoon, say about an inch in diameter, while the outer thickness should be removed for a diameter of 3 inches, and all the old gum (which, after being vulcanized, will not adhere to new) carefully scraped off from the outer surface of the inner thickness for the same diameter of 3 inches, and from the outer surface of the outer thickness for a diameter of 6 inches. The hole being thus prepared, three or four coats of India-rubber cement, thinned, if necessary, with a little camphine, are put on the inside surface of the pontoon[by the finger or a brush, for a width of about 2 inches around the hole, each coat of cement being dried in the shade before the next is put on. A patch of strong duck, 5 inches in diameter, and coated on one side with cement, is theu adjusted on the inside of the pontoon, so that the centre of the patch will correspond to the centre of the hole: a second patch, 3 inches in diameter, and coated with cement on both sides, fills the openings cut out of the outer thickness of the pontoon; and a third patch, 6 inches in diameter, of vulcanized India-rubber cloth, coated on one side and cemented on the other, is put concentrically over all."

Aide-Memoire to the Military Sciences: https://books.google.com/books?id=kw...rubber&f=false